Cross Campus: 2.23.12

Breaking records. The Senior Class Gift campaign for the class of 2012 ended with a party at Box 63 Wednesday night. At 11:10 p.m., during the party, the campaign received a late gift to top last year’s participation record. Ultimately, 97.3 percent of current seniors donated — ahead of the class of 2011’s record 97 percent participation.

Whose cuisine will reign supreme? After weeks of emails, posters and general buildup, Final Cut will come to Commons today at 5 p.m., as student chefs from the residential colleges compete to win the coveted title of Iron Chef Yale. Two iPads and a chicken tenders dinner for 10 will be raffled off at the event.

Exploring new media? The name of Louise Glück, Yale’s Rosenkranz Writer-in-Residence and a former poet laureate of the United States, popped up on Yelp earlier this month with a glowing review of Heather’s Home Cleaning in Berkeley, Calif. “Never have I seen clean like this: walls and tiles changed color, surfaces I’d been reluctant to actually touch glittered,” wrote one “Krystal G.,” who said she was writing the review for Glück.

Some have to wait. As part of the state’s effort to balance its budget, the chief state prosecutor’s office will not take on any new “cold case” homicides from local police departments, the Hartford Courant reported Wednesday.

Another round. Daniel Esty LAW ’86, a professor at the Law School and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, won unanimous legislative approval for a second year as comissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, CTNewsJunkie reported.

Need a ride to Toad’s? Winfield Davis, the deputy director of public space for New Haven’s Town Green Special Services District, said plans are in the works to set up a taxi stand on Crown Street between Temple and College Streets, the New Haven Independent reported. The new taxi stand would function similarly to the stand at Union Station, and would operate from 10 p.m. until 2 or 3 a.m.

On the verge. Yale’s own The Fifth Humour is in the running to receive $5,500 in Zipcar driving credits via a Facebook contest run.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1968 During a morning panel on coeducation, an audience member asks University President Kingman Brewster whether, in choosing female students, the admissions committee “will pay any attention to appearance.” In response, Brewster rises and says, emphatically, “yes.”